Communications of the ACM
Byu Research Predicts Path of Lost Hikers
Credit: Brigham Young University
Computer models developed at Brigham Young University (BYU) could help search and rescue teams in their effort to find lost hikers. BYU's Lanny Lin says the statistical models calculate where a lost hiker will go when he or she encounters steep slopes, dense vegetation, or water, which will help search teams better allocate their resources for rescue missions.
The predictive models start at the point where a person was last seen and incorporates the amount of time he or she has been missing. The information is combined with topographical data, vegetation, slope, and terrain of the area, and updates the statistical estimates to help the search effort.
Lin describes a scenario in which searchers would have fanned out to follow the original course of travel of a lost Boy Scout near a local lake, but the BYU predictive models say the missing boy most likely would have looped back behind the searchers when moving from a forest area to a nearby slope.
From Brigham Young University
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2010 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
No entries found